Originally published at: 1953 U.S. Navy training film about fire control computers - Boing Boing
…
8 Likes
5 Likes
The Periscope Film archive is full of similar delights, such as “how to get killed.”
Oof, some good ol’ WWII era anti-Japanese racism there. Considering that the two actors portraying the Japanese soldiers were almost certainly detainees from one of the Japanese-American internment camps makes it a double oof. I bet they both spoke perfect English but were required to ham up a ridiculous Japanese accent for the film.
5 Likes
That last generation of battleships is probably the acme of brute-force yet precision engineering - at least the traditional kind of engineering.
We had a prof in the '90s, on sabbatical from Kettering. While he wasn’t doing steel things in our steel research center, he gave talks on his hobby: the 16" guns. Of course it is doable with resources, but nobody on earth currently can make even one. It would have been cool to work a firing solution to lay siege on Boulder, just within range.
That analog computer was good enough to live on to the class’ end in the 1990s. No batteries required, no BSOD, no “waiting for updates…”
7 Likes
That was fascinating and I enjoyed it enormously.
3 Likes
“A computer cannot do this without men”
Those were the days, eh?
As someone who lived in Boulder for a time, I already have some choice targets picked out.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
